~

Nina outwardly bristled slightly at the arrogance in his tone, while her mind turned his offer over. 300 doubloons sounded... a pretty good offer for something she had already planned to be giving for free, anyway.

But his arrogance in him letting her live... Nina was tempted to just fight him simply because why not. Being underestimated wasn't something she encountered every day - usually she was relatively overestimated by her opponents - but she still found the wolf to be arrogant. Okay, so what he had a bunch of daggers somewhere on his person, right? Else he wouldn't have allowed her into this place. Nina didn't entirely know is Seven or herself was better - she hadn't exactly tried fighting him yet - but that wasn't exactly the point right now. His arrogance was a blast of dominance in the face, and Nina suppressed every single feeling that she had of that - including the urge to scratch that smirk off his face. Seriously, Nina had to try.

But that stupid arrogant smirk, with that stupid arrogant voice. Really. And now he was looking her over like a prize piece of meat.

Nina really wanted to try kill him for the sake of it.

But, in the end, Nina was a mercenary with a job. Why not make more money whild doing the job and still make the fee at the end of it?

Putting down the almost irresistible urge to bite him, Nina spoke in a pretty calm voice. She didn't know how observant he may have been - had he noticed what she really was? After all, the shell of dirt had only been pretty hurriedly applied over the last night. But she was here for the money.

"Three hundred and sixty." Nina didn't come cheap. She was a pretty expensive mercenary, after all. She was pretty good. Maybe one of the best.

Nina waited to see what he'd say.

~

Jesus, but this wolf was difficult. Nina suppressed the urge to actually kill him. Who the hell uses their telekenesis - okay, Nina may have underestimated him a bit. Wolves with bigger powers were kind of annoying to fight. Nina had done it once and it hadn't turned out very well... so now she wasn't entirely sure anymore.

But damn. Seven, as he called himself - was being rather difficult. Ninahad recieved plenty of death threats since she entered her occupation, but her style was more of a "stab you in the back in the middle of the night" way,than a "let's fight it out to the death" kind. After all, chivalry was for those who want to get themselves killed. Why risk your own life in a battle, when you could just sneak in while they were sleeping and murder them? Nina found those idiots pointless. Who cares how the enemy dies? Just kill them one way or another.

But 325 sounded nice. Mmmmm. Money. Although this job paid more... it was a decent chunk of extra money. How desperate is he for this information? Nina idly wondered. Maybe she could milk it a bit more. Although... did Seven manage to figure out her occupation? Judging by his reactions, he had. Which - again - wasn't necessarily part of her plan, but... maybe it could work to her advantage.

She didn't come cheap, but... 325 was more than she had earned on a bunch of her jobs.

"Deal." Nina nodded. "What do you want to know?" She had a pretty good idea of what to say - and she wouldn't exactly lie when she told Seven. She wouldn't lie, but she wouldn't say everything. Lying was too easy to detect. Why not pursue the path of "selective truths"?

~

Nina didn't mean for her heart to lurch slightly once Seven began looking at her like that. Damnit, other wolvesdod that expression to her all the time - usually it didn't affect her, though.

Ugh. It was so much easier to deal with the Seven that he was earlier, full of threats. Because this version of Seven... she was tired, hadn't slept in a day, and this was not the time for her brain to be thinking of these useless thoughts.

She sat down, uncomfortably aware of the distance between herand Seven, and damn but he looked really good. Nina's brain kept looping useless thoughts, and she was here for business. Nina kepy her eyes averted from him to stop her beain from thinking useless things about him, and began.

"I'm Nina. You might have already guessed, I'm a mercenary assasain for hire. Most likely the best in town." Nina felt far too self-conscious as she said that. She had never felt this way before... what was going on with her?

Ignoring it, she carried on. Averting her eues did nothing now that Seven had switched from "I'm going to kill you" mode to "lool at me!" mode.

She tried focussing on the task she was about to do. She needed to make sure she didn't reveal too much. "Until recently, I was hieed by the group that wanted to take you down. I know their contacts, their members, and a bunch of insider knowledge besides that." Nina was relatively confident that Josef and his company could effectively disappear from the map if theu were threatened, and not lose a single penny out of it. Heck, she didn't think Josef was his real name anyway. So revealing a bit would causd no harm. And esrn her 325 gold doubloons.

Mmmmm. Money. If one thing could distract Nina, it was money up for grabs.

"Why did I leave them, you may ask? Because they didn't pay me enough to stay and not tell you about them. And unlike them, I know it's probably pointless to even try get to you." Nina let out a snort. As she did that, her eyes finally rose to meet Seven's.

"Maybe you could pay me to stay, too."

When Nina said she'd use every weapon in her arsenal, she meant it. Aware of Seven's eyes on hee, she brok eye contact and stretched a bit - aware that Seven could probably see her ful profile from where he was.

Okay, maybe she was preening. A little bit. But it was fun.

She looked at Seven once again.

~

The male wolf was having a much greater effect on her than he must have realized, and Nina refused to let it show. Maintaining her mask that her assassin training had given her was crucial.

Especially in cases like this when the wolf was far too handsome for his own good. Nina really, really tried to stop thinking about it.

Still. Nina was slightly rattled, and she refused to show it. At least, she tried her very hardest.

"All my information on the group? That works." Nina had a feeling that he wouldn't like it if she didn't say everything now, but who ever said in the deal that she had to keep him happy? Nina enjoyed poking the bear a bit, and a handsome, slightly annoyed- enough. Nina really couldn't stand this unwelcome deluge of thoughts she really didn't want to have. But he was rather handsome.

Nina kept speaking. "But, like you said... how should I know that you'll come clean and give me the money once I'm done here? For all I know you could cut and ditch me the moment you're done. And I know the rule of the streets."

If the male did one more provocative thing, Nina would actually melt.

"And to your second and third question... I stay loyal to whoever offers me the most to gain. Right now you're the people who are, and will be hte people who are for the forseeable future. So I ditched my previous group - they were idiots, and I was beginning to lose more than gain with them. And I know that unlike my previous employers, you might actually be worth it..." Nina briefly glanced upwards at Seven's powerful form in that way that usually made other males explode. She wondered how far she could personally go before shattering herself with this dangerous game.

Even though she was enjoying it far too much. And her mind kept looping over him.

~

Nina knew she had set the stakes high. Maybe too high, if she personally thought about it. But it wasn't Nina if she didn't like money, and really high stakes.

Gods, she was probably enjoying this a bit too much. Even though her brain kept looping around how nice Seven looked... she really had to stop thinking about him and his-

No. Enough.

Nina forced herself to return into the present. She was wasting far too much brainpower on Seven when really she should be focussing more on saying the right thing.

Well, here went her roll of the dice. Nina really hoped that telling most of the truth would suffice.

She tossed her head slightly. "You are paying me, right?" Without waiting for Seven to respond she plowed on. Really, betraying her own organization should have caused a bit of uncertainty in her. And it did. But a lot of her brain was still looping around Seven.

Three different thoughts - how to direct this conversation, is betraying my own organization right? and the goddamn incorrect thoughts of Seven - really didn't sit well in her head. Thank god he hadn't made any more provocative moves, like stretching again and showing off those glorious muscles.

Nina concentrated back into what she was saying. "In my ex-organization, you've got two faceless people. You have the Director and his assistant. You're supposedly not allowed to interact with anyone outside your field of duty... like we're expendable." Nina pulled a face at that, trying to ignore Seven watching her like that. Really, she should feel disgusted like other times. But this time felt different, goddamnit.

"Lucky for you I knew some of them, I guess. Who do you want me to start with?"

Nina risked another look at Seven, and managed not to combust in doing so. Achievement! She wasn't entirely sure why she felt like this. She never had.

Why did she have to? It made talking to him and thinking about him - in a professional sense, not in the way her brain tried to put her into - so much more difficult.